1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat exchanger package for complex, high-density and high-powered electronic devices and systems and, more particularly, to such a package comprising a number of modules each of which supports one or more electronic devices and which, when assembled together, includes an integral heat dissipating system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Complex electronic systems have undergone considerable change in design from an assembly including the use of such structural members as angles, brackets, cold plates, heat sinks and other pieces of hardware to more integrated systems. Such pieces of hardware structurally integrate various electronic components of the system and generally form no part of the system itself; their existence by nature adds weight and bulkiness to the resulting assembly. In addition, such systems are relatively easy to cool since the components are sufficiently separated so that the power rating per cubic foot and the resulting generated heat is sufficiently low to permit the use of conventional heat exchanging means. Thus, such an electronic system was first designed and then adapted to some form of heat exchanging means.
With the increasing need for lightweight systems, it has been found necessary to incorporate the structural hardware into as close adjacency with the electronic components and circuitry as is possible. Examples of such prior art systems are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,411,041, 3,395,318 and 3,648,113. In all of these systems, heat is removed by flowing coolant around or through the electronic components and there may be several structural elements interposed between the electronic components and the coolant, thereby resulting in relatively poor thermal conductivity from the components to the coolant. In part, this thermal dissipation problem results from the requirement to electrically interconnect the components, one with another. In some cases, components are mounted on a board which is then placed on a thermally conductive surface from which the heat is conducted to the coolant. As the number of components increases, the number of interconnecting leads correspondingly increase, which may require placing leads on both sides of supporting member with numerous circuit interlayers. Because all these leads must be insulated one from the other, such insulation deleteriously affects thermal conductivity and impedes heat flow from the components to the cooling surface.